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The MAFP Board of Directors approved three legislative priorities for 2017.

2017 Legislative Priorities

The top priority is to advocate to ensure that all Minnesotans have access to affordable, high quality and accessible care.

Our health care must be based in a primary care centered model with an emphasis on prevention, care coordination, and improvement of health;

Reforms must benefit all Minnesotans regardless of income, race, or ethnic background to narrow the ongoing health disparities that exist in Minnesota; and

Any reform adopted must be well tested and studied to ensure its ability to improve the health of our population.

The second priority is to support reforms to our medication prior authorization processes that ensure that patients receive their needed medications in a timely manner and additional transparency is provided to prescribers to reduce the administrative burdens faced daily in a physician’s office. These reforms include:

Limits on changes to a patient’s formulary once they are on a medication that is working;

Limits on the number of times a patient is forced to go through “step therapy” for needed medications, disclosure prior to writing a prescription on drugs that require prior authorization and those that don’t; and

Shorter timelines for initial coverage decisions and appeals.

The third priority is support of additional efforts to address the opioid crisis in Minnesota without adding unnecessary burdens that interfere with patient care.

We commit to educating family physicians on appropriate prescribing criteria and supporting efforts to reduce opioid misuse.

Any solution adopted must include reducing barriers that assist patients from breaking addictions and additional funding for addiction treatment.

Additional Areas of Interest

Additional advocacy areas of interest for the MAFP include supporting expanding vaccination coverage and Tobacco 21, the campaign to raise the purchase age for tobacco from 18 to 21.